The Oldest Toilet Seat Ever Found

Scientists have found the most ancient wooden toilet seat in the world. During digs at Hadrian's Wall at the Vindolanda Fort, Great Britain, archaeologists came upon a toilet seat used more than 2000 years ago.

The unique discovery has been quite well preserved in the trench due to the low oxygen exposure. The artifact is the first of its kind. The scientists believe that the toilet seat was used in the Vindolanda Fort in Northumberland county, by Roman soldiers stationed there. Their objective was to defend the Roman territories behind Hadrian's Wall and deal with attacks by barbarians.

So far archaeologists have found numerous well-preserved marble and stone toilets from the ancient Roman era and not by chance either. At that time, the toilet was viewed in a fundamentally different way than today. The Roman bathhouses and public toilets were places for social contact.

And if today the bathroom is perhaps the only place where you can remain alone with your thoughts, in Roman times you could have seen people you knew and even have come to a business deal while sitting on the toilet. In ancient Rome, there were no separate rooms for toilets, instead they used one common room.

In this way, the visitors were able to have conversations while using them. Next to the marble toilet benches, there were chutes with running water. Using a sponge attached to a stick, the water was used for self-cleaning.

The scientists are especially proud of their find in Vindolanda, since they had so far never found a wooden toilet seat during excavation. The experts believe that the discovered item was preferred to the cold stone toilets, especially in the northern parts of the Roman province of Britain.

Vindolanda is a military Roman fort, part of Hadrian's Wall, located in North England. The local garrison had infantry and cavalry. During past excavations, they have found unique coins, jewelry, Roman boots, sandals and chain mail.